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I like to nose around in the stats looking for anything unusual or informative. DIPs (Defense Independent Pitching) is a formula for calculating what a pitcher's ERA would be with a league average defense behind him. It is an attempt to separate how much a pitcher's effectiveness is him, and how much is the defense behind him. If your regular ERA is higher than your DIPs ERA, then you are doing a better job than it appears because you have had less than league average defense behind you. If your regular ERA is lower, it is the reverse, a lot of what you are getting credit for has actually been a better than league avergae defense behind you.

So, looking around for who has the biggest difference between their regular and DIPs ERAs, who should jump right out but your own Justin Verlander. His 9-1 2.31 ERA (third best in NL) glitters, but his DIP ERA is 3.40. In sum, Verlander is getting an enormous boost from the Astro gloves backing him up.

I was following the game online in the top of the 7th. Verlander had struck out the side in the 6th, and was...with a 3-2 lead..one strike away from doing the same thing in the 7th...when he gave up his third one run home run of the game (only one other hit besides those three) .

Later, at various points in the car, I asked Siri what the score was.

The last time, Siri told me Astros fans were getting their money's worth ...that it was 3-3 in the bottom of the 12th.

I just checked the score online, and the Astros lost. The Brewers scored three runs in the top of the 14th and won 6-3 .

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